(13:49)
With plenty of effort on G36's part, the Commander was eventually cleaned up to a respectable state. A trip to the shower, some work fixing up his hair, a newly pressed uniform and a fresh pot of coffee to ensure he didn't fall asleep again.
From his room, the maid escorted him to the command center. There he called Kalina, who also began pestering him endlessly about giving her a task and not checking in when he said.
Though, eventually those complaints also fell away. It was almost showtime.
Hsu still hadn't gotten a feel for Sector Nine. The Commander only left base for official business after that mess of a patrol. Kalina, on the other hand, had been here for months. She'd built a network of connections with the local settlements, organizing the supply routes that brought them goods from civilization.
So, Hsu decided to take advantage of that.
If the base was going to stay afloat, they needed income. The easiest way to get said income was local contracts. Jobs they could take on from government officials, town leaders, other companies operating in the area, or maybe even the Military if there was something they were too occupied or apathetic to deal with themselves.
Helian hadn't been lying. After the War, there was plenty of money to be made for a PMC willing to pick up other people's slack.
He'd told Kalina to send a notice to the regional administrator, offering Griffin's help to deal with the bandit problem that plagued this sector. PPK had gotten quite a bit of information from their 'guests', before they'd been sent on a prison transport to the nearest city.
The situation for this sector was bleak, to put it mildly. The bandits seemed to run the show far more than the Soviets. Each of the settlements paid them protection money, raiders would regularly ambush convoys and raid them for supplies. They could even charge 'tolls' on transports, facing no backlash.
Civilians here had long since become used to this state of affairs. Moscow refused to send help, they didn't care. Kiev couldn't send help, they didn't have the manpower. Resistance was suicide, the only people with guns in this whole area were either Bandits or Griffin. And up until now, Griffin hadn't done anything to deal with them.
At least, until Hsu came. And dealing with thugs was a task he'd long gotten acclimated to.
The Commander stood before a holographic projection, the Soviet Governor sitting behind a desk as the two men spoke. The Governor was an older man, his large greying beard dominating his portrait. He wore a more traditional garb paired with a large fuzzy hat, reminding the Canadian of outfits worn by the Natives back home.
"Your coming forward is quite appreciated, Commander. But I fail to see what the director of a logistics depot can do." He spoke, voice cracked and strained. The elderly man sounded like he'd been smoking since he was a teenager, and his teeth looked the part as well when he flashed a condescending smile. "Why should I have you do this, and not the Soviet Army?"
"Respectfully, Hetman, if the Muscovites were going to help, they would have before things got this bad." Hsu said, remembering the information Kalina had given about the man. "And they've already killed a great deal of your Strelyitzi. Meanwhile, we're here. Ready, willing and able."
The Governor huffed, resting his hands over his rather large belly. "Your company has been operating in this area for almost as long as it's been resettled. If you were so 'willing and able', why wait until now?"
"Political red tape. We had to negotiate permission from the Army to operate freely." Hsu said, lying straight through his teeth. He had no idea at all why Griffin hadn't done anything to help, nor did he have the time to find out. But he figured he could play into the local resentment of the Russians to gain some sympathy.
Judging from the Governor's reaction, the bait worked. His face twisted in disgust at the mention of the Army, like someone had put a dead rat on his desk. "Useless Imperialists. Ukraine should have never rejoined with these fascists."
Hsu didn't respond immediately, allowing his hopefully soon-to-be benefactor to stew in his thoughts. Griffin was known to deliver on their contracts, but this Governor had never worked with the PMC before. Reputation was important, but one couldn't make a logical decision on that alone.
Hopefully, he'd make an emotional one instead.
"...If I hire your contingent, what will be your first move?" The Governor questioned.
"Reconnaissance and assessment." Hsu answered honestly. "We'll survey the region for the bandit's holdouts. Observe their patrol pattern, analyze their defenses. All of this information, we'll also hand over to you. That way you can strike with your personal forces, or even use it as leverage to get more support from Kiev."
"And then?"
"I'm not one to make moves without as much information as possible, Sir."
The elderly man laughed heartily, his projection digitizing at the sound. "A wise way of doing things."
The Governor went quiet once again, looking over a few papers as he thought. He began to nod, the smile remaining on his face. "Your point is made. Let's see what Griffin can do. When can you begin your efforts?"
"I can have a scouting team get to work within the hour."
"Then do so. I will have my administration wire the payment Miss Kalina requested."
Hsu gave a soft, quick bow to the man. "You'll have our preliminary reports by nightfall."
With that, the transmission cut off into a flurry of pixels. Kalina speedily rushed to a computer console, yelling something in her native Polish that Hsu couldn't comprehend. G36, however, seemed to understand, sighing in frustration.
"She's talking about buying a new car with her bonus." The German translated, something that made Hsu crack the ghost of a smile only she could catch. He then went over to his control panel, pulling up a microphone and pressing a button down.
"Echelon Two, report to the Command Center for briefing."
(15:00)
As he viewed the video feed, Hsu could see G36's team dismount from the helicopter and take positions around it. The dolls held in a five-point circle around the vehicle, standing in the center of a forest clearing a few kilometers west of the base. Shortly after, their transport returned to the skies, and the five dolls disappeared into the treeline.
Five screens were online, each one transmitting the live feed from an android in the field. G36 was in the front, with her four subordinates following behind as they moved to their first observation point with as much speed as their chassis could provide. Almost immediately, M1897 ended up tripping over a root, but she was pulled up by the new Russian and they rejoined the formation.
Part of the Commander's mind still wasn't sure about this. He was aware of this echelon's shortcomings, and he knew their combat capacity was rather lacking. But in a way, that made this the perfect situation for their first solo mission. The team had been given strict orders to not attack unless told otherwise, their purpose was to observe and record. It would give them all some much needed field experience.
Assuming nothing went wrong, of course. Which it almost always did.
Hsu was jostled out of his thoughts when he felt a warm object press against his arm. Garand passed by him, putting a steaming mug of coffee in his hands before sitting down at the console bank.
"Springfield says 'you're welcome', by the way. She put extra cream in there, like you asked." The blonde told him as she began to cycle through the feeds as well, putting the echelon leader's view front and center on the biggest screen available.
"I didn't ask." He replied, taking a sip from the light brown mix. Like G36, Springfield seemed to have noticed his habits and adapted accordingly. Each of the dolls were acclimating themselves to his presence in their own way, just as he was slowly getting used to theirs. "Is your team all set?"
"They've got their gear, one word and they'll be on a chopper to help." Garand assured, focusing on her work at the console. "Why'd you choose me as your adjutant for this, anyway? Wouldn't Thompson or Bar be better and giving orders?"
"Thompson needs to lead the team if they get deployed, and Bar avoids me unless she can't." Hsu explained, his second point making Garand frown. The former Captain was giving their boss the cold shoulder after that ultimatum, not taking kindly to being threatened with de-coring.
"From what I've seen, you're the smartest doll on base. Plus the squad has another sharpshooter to fill the gap." Hsu rationalized, focusing on G36's feed as her team crossed over a large creek. "Disappointed you're not going in?"
Garand shrugged, not appearing to be upset at the prospect of being benched. "Honestly, I'm glad you didn't pick me just because I'm hot."
The Commander looked at the doll, confused. "Say again?"
The blonde smirked, taking her beret off and fluttering her eye-lashes. "Come now, Commander. You think I'm pretty, don't you?"
Hsu rolled his eyes. "I think you should focus." He suggested, firmly. Garand giggled at his dismissal, but returned to monitoring the screens.
"Say…" She began, an idea popping into her head. Thinking far back, to their first outing together with this grizzly old man as their leader. "I still have three questions left. Remember, from the patrol?"
Hsu looked at her in confusion, not sure what the doll was getting at. It had been weeks since they had that discussion, and the whole affair had left his mind entirely. But soon enough, the wires crossed in his mind, and the little game returned to his recollection.
"I'm a man of my word." Was his only response, sipping at his mug as he began to pace through the mostly empty room.
Garand leaned back, trying to decide what she wanted to find out about the secretive middle-aged man. In truth, she wanted to get under the Commander's skin a little bit. From day one, he'd treated her and her friends with contempt at best.
The others had asked pretty surface-level questions. But she could easily go deeper, it wouldn't be the first time she'd gone toe to toe with this blowhard.
"...You don't speak with an accent, so you're obviously a native to the URNA." Garand observed. "But you're obviously at least part-Asian. How did your mom or your dad end up in Canada?"
Hsu huffed, not liking that he was going to be offering up even more about himself. But a promise was a promise. Though this was going to be an extremely long-winded answer.
"My Great-Great Grandfather was a General for Chang Kai-Shiek." Hsu explained, sipping his coffee. "When the Nationalists lost, they fled to Taiwan. My Grandmother and my father were born there. Then, my Dad went to Canada for college and met my Mom. Instead of going back, he stayed with her."
Garand smiled brightly, enjoying the information. "Awww, how adorable."
Hsu took another sip, focusing on PPsH-41's screen as she climbed underneath the ruins of a particularly mangled building. His grip on his cup tightened, knuckles whitening. Seeing the man's physical reaction, Garand realized she hit gold. No wonder Thompson heckled everybody, this was more fun than she thought!
"So, what about siblings?" Garand pushed, spinning around and planting her knees on the cushion of her chair. Hsu tensed even more.
"...Two brothers. One older, one younger."
"So I was right! I knew it, you give off that whole 'dissatisfied middle child' vibe." Garand taunted openly. The Commander scowled, easily catching the underhanded jab. He fired a glare out of the corner of his eye, but bit his tongue. Nothing would come of blowing his top at a robot.
Very much enjoying herself, Garand lined up her final question. "Are you still planning on stripping out our emotion modules?"
This time, Hsu froze. His coffee mug slipped from his grasp, falling down and shattering to pieces on the tile. The Commander's eyes went wide as dinner plates, completely caught off guard.
Garand smiled, finally having gotten the man in a corner.
(15:12)
The team was set up on top of a grassy knoll, setting up an observation pylon. It was one of several pieces of equipment each of the androids had brought along with them, creating a surveillance net across the river basin. Out of the way enough that no one would find them, but in areas that provided vision on roads and routes of travel.
M1897 and PPsH-41 were enjoying themselves. She'd taken a quick shine to the small Russian, happy that there was a new face on her team. Someone who wasn't stern like G36, but also wasn't psychotic like PPK. They chattered happily with one another, trading stories of their past jobs before joining the PMC.
Meanwhile, PPK continued to scan the area for any incoming surprises. As a handgun doll, she'd been installed with an abundance of observation modules compared to more combat oriented T-Dolls. The most helpful at this time was a motion sensor, ensuring that no one was creeping upon them through the brush. The downside was that she had to remain in place, directing her battery power to keep it online.
Like every other doll on the team, her chassis had not been built for soldiering in mind.
G36 sat close to the front of the hill, peering through a pair of electronic binoculars as she tracked a convoy of trucks driving down a dirt path. Each one had slabs of metal welded all over, machine guns fixed onto the flatbed and wild designs painted on. A crude version of an APC, but something that could stop most bullets from ripping through the sides.
She hated that Griffin had let things get this bad. Heaven knew how much suffering could have avoided if they'd simply intervened sooner.
"They seem trained." StG observed, watching on from behind her echelon leader. G36 looked behind, confused, before the other German pointed towards the convoy's dust-cloud. "See how each truck is spaced out? Ample space for them to break apart. Not riding bumpers."
"They seem to be normal scavengers to me." G36 replied, turning back to look at the road with her optics again.
"Unsurprising, given your inexperience." StG44 replied, a comment that made her new leader look back once again. The maid was indignant, not wanting to have her authority undermined by a fresh face.
"What makes you think I'm inexperienced?" G36 questioned, standing up and slipping the binoculars back into her kit. "I have passed every combat simulation Griffin has to offer. The Company even equipped me with a high end Fire Control Core along with an Electronic Warfare module."
"And how many times have you been engaged in real combat?" Her counterpart questioned, to which G36 had no response.
Besides that mishap with the prowler drones and her fistfight with Thompson, she'd never been in true battle. Her duties had left her to remain on base, even when bandits probed at their perimeter. A maid's work was never done, afterall. Taking care of so many humans was a daunting task, especially when two of them were as slobbish as Commander Hsu and Chief Khan.
Taking her silence as a response, StG44 moved to stand next to G36's flank. They shared height, though StG's attire made her appear larger than life. In fact, her dress exuded a sense of militarism that Gretel had never been able to grasp. The peaked cap, the combat boots, even the dress uniform managed to look both appealing aesthetically while maintaining a soldier's disposition.
"For someone who despises germs, you're awfully close to me." G36 said with measured annoyance.
"You and the kleiner Amerikaner are the cleanest things in this filthy sector." StG44 commented, M1897's voice rising as she struggled to drive the observation pylon into the ground. "I prefer being closer to you zhan anything else here. Especially the others at base."
G36 hummed, but offered no counter. She probably was the cleanest creature in Sector Nine. After all, one cannot clean after others if they are not the epitome of cleanliness themselves.
Seeing that the maid wasn't going to reject her presence, StG rested a hand on the receiver of her century old weapon. "It's true, in technical ability, you do outclass me. You are a four star doll, meanwhile I'm a mere drei sterne android. Even the weapon you've been imprinted to is far more capable than my own. But there are some things you can only develop in the field."
G36 nodded along, comparing the polymer frame of her assault rifle to the steel and wooden makeup of StG's. "So you think you could do better than I?"
StG chortled. "I've been leading combat teams for Griffin since before you even knew this PMC existed, junger. I don't think, I know."
"What is this then, a show of force?"
"Nein, nein." StG44 said quickly, shaking her head. "You are our leader, Frau Thirty Six. All I ask is zhat you listen to this old soldier when she has something to say."
"...You have my thanks, for your assistance in the future." G36 answered, not looking a gift horse in the mouth. She cursed that she was letting her lack of ability show, but at least it was in good company. "Vat is your name? Your real name."
StG cracked a smile, chuckling happily at the question. "Gott en Himmel, I haven't used it since I was an autonomous-doll." StG44 said with some degree of nostalgia. There was a wistful look in the woman's eyes, about the life she used to lead before becoming a mercenary.
"Do not feel obliged." G36 offered, but StG merely shook her head once more.
"Erika." The doll answered, green eyes shining. "The owner of the textile factory I worked for gave it to me. She was a kind woman, though extremely fixated on being tidy. Which is why she ordered my model! We're known for being-"
"-Neurotic?"
"I am not neurotic! I am HEALTHY!" StG44 defended vehemently, not taking an insult to her dedication to cleanliness lying down. "How dare you besmirch my ability to remain spotless in such adverse conditions! I thought that you of all people would understand!"
"I understand zhat you are neurotic." G36 replied, chuckling at the woman's fuming expression.
"I take back what I said! I am not helping you anymore! Verstehen!?"
"Verstanden~." G36 said, still giggling as StG44 stormed back up the hill.
Such an odd doll. But she'd be lying if she said she didn't like her.
(15:25)
The doors opened back up to the command center, and Garand walked back inside with a new mug of coffee. Having to explain what happened to the last one to Springfield was an exercise in her creativity, but not a hard one.
Hsu watched on as G36's team finished up with setting up the pylon, moving off the hill and towards their next objective. The clunk of the new mug being put next to his chair once again pulled his focus from the monitors, and he went to grab this new beverage firmly.
Garand, meanwhile, sat herself up on the edge of the table he was sitting at. Both her legs crossed as she planted her hands on the metal. "You're welcome. Again."
Hsu didn't offer a response immediately. The middle aged man instead chugged the coffee down, letting the last of his hangover get drowned in caffeine before setting the mug back onto the table. Garand took it, moving it away from them both so it wouldn't get knocked over.
Silence continued to loom, the only sounds coming from the idle comms chatter of the dolls in the field. The dolls had now found themselves in the overgrown remains of a supermarket, vines and leaves having enshrined the broken neon sign that hung askew above the shattered glass windows.
Seeing that this was going to go nowhere, Garand decided to take the reins.
"OK, let's lay down some facts." The doll said, lifting her fingers and counting up. "One, you are a colossal asshole. Two, you owe Assad an apology and a raise. Three, even if you said you won't take our modules anymore, you're not coming near the engineering bay for a while."
The Commander scratched the scar on his nose, still not giving the doll any response. It was something that only served to bother Garand, not taking kindly to how aloof this crotchety man was being with her.
"You see this? This is why Thompson and Bar don't trust you." She explains bluntly. "You keep us all at arms length for no reason. From the moment you showed up, you wanted absolutely nothing to do with us. Nothing!"
The man remained quiet, a trait that was growing more and more irritating as time went on. Garand dismounted herself, pacing a circle around the command table as she kept ranting.
"You don't talk to us outside of missions. You don't leave your room unless Thirty-Six pries you out every morning. You don't even talk with Kalina, or Ines, or any of the other human staff!" She points out, throwing her hands above her head in frustration.
"And that's just it! I thought it was because you hated dolls, that's why you never spoke with us! But you hate everyone! You don't even eat your meals with anyone, either Springfield or Thirty-Six has to take them to you!"
"Is there a point to this?" Hsu finally asked. "You don't have to interact with me outside of missions, why do you care if I'm mean-spirited?"
"Because you aren't, you absolute dickhead!"
"So I'm an asshole, and a dickhead, but I'm not mean." Hsu slithered, making the doll groan loudly at his obstinance. This whole discussion was rapidly going nowhere. Garand planted her feet next to Hsu, then slammed her hand on the edge of the table.
She had to try. She promised Khan she'd try.
"I remember what happened when I got shot." She admitted, getting the Canadian to look at her once again. "You got me out. You could have let me just power down, lose all my memories for the past month. But you didn't. You ended the patrol, even after I told you to not. You saved me. And then you saved me again when Bar and I were about to get taken out during the last operation!"
Hsu listened to her speak, surprised she even cared about any of that. It was a reflex to him, not some great act of mercy. But maybe that showed just how poorly these dolls had been treated by the outside world, not expecting even the most basic levels of kindness.
Still, Garand wasn't done. "I just want to figure you out. Because my gut keeps telling me that under all that guff, there's a good person. Someone I want to be friends with. But he won't let me, for whatever reason."
It was a sappy declaration, but a genuine one. Even with this knowledge, out of all the dolls, Garand had gone out of her way to interact with him. Springfield was always happy to chat, but more as a parental figure than a friend. As for G36, well, she'd said it herself, they weren't friends yet either.
In truth, he couldn't remember the last time he had people he could really call 'friends.' Near the end, everyone was either someone he gave orders to or someone he shot.
"Something obviously triggered this, and it wasn't Khan telling you about my request." He deducted. Blowing up on him like this, she was bottling her annoyance for a while. But that didn't explain why the cork came out.
Garand sighed, flicking her bangs away from her eyes. "Thirty-Six told me she let you know her real name. Griffin dolls don't like talking about our past lives. Most of us didn't come from happy homes, if you catch my drift. So her letting you know that is… big. She didn't tell Kalina or Assad until two months after she came.
Hsu nodded, directing his gaze back towards the monitors. Surprising, she'd developed that level of trust for him so quickly. It made him feel… happy, but also disconcerted. Things tended to end badly when people trusted him.
"Khan's not getting a raise." The Commander informed, Garand's shoulders sagging. "But; he deserves an apology, and he'll get one."
"Thank you." The doll answered, brightening up a little bit. "And... everything else?"
"We'll see." He answered, tone reflecting that the conversation had ended. Seeing she'd gotten more than she'd expected, Garand went back to her chair and began monitoring her feeds once more.
"Totally and Royally Fucked, by the way." She said, looking over her shoulder.
"Hm?"
"That's what 'tarf'd' means. It's shorthand."
Hsu nodded, looking up from the table. "Still prefer fubar."
The blonde smiled at the comment, biting at the chance to have a normal conversation. "Of course you'd like something old fashioned-."
"Kommandant, do you see zhis!?" G36's voice came out of the comm link, making both of them almost jump out of their skin. Garand pulled the echelon leader's feed onto the main screen, both herself and Hsu staring as a large plume of smoke curled into the sky.
(15:32)
The team sprinted towards the ever growing plume of ash, fanning out to G36's left and right as they bounded their way out of the woodland and over an open field.
Each of the dolls had been taken completely off guard by the series of explosions. It was completely off course from their next objective, at least three kilometers in the opposite direction. But such an event coming out of nowhere warranted some kind of investigation. They were supposed to be scouting, after all.
Still, it was unsettling. High explosive ordinance was heavily restricted in the Soviet Union. Even Private Military Companies like Griffin weren't allowed near anything larger than a hand grenade. A few pipe-bombs and IEDs were to be expected from bandits, but not serious hardware.
And this kind of damage sounded like serious hardware.
G36's digimind frantically tried to compute a plan for such a tenuous situation. She might be leading her team into a death trap, for all she knew. This was deep into unfriendly territory, and the chances of backup or evacuation reaching them if things went south were very slim.
This was her first real mission as a field leader. The last thing she needed on her conscience was the injury of her friends.
In three minutes they arrived at the source of the solemn signal.
On the road, four large transport trucks were splayed all over. Some knocked on their side, some still stopped in the dead center. Three of them were mangled, flaming wrecks. Metal shells twisted and bent in obscene fashion. One even had it's entire hood torn off, edges melted. A single truck remained intact, but the canvas canopy behind it was riddled with bullet holes. Red seeped out, dripping onto the dirt from the rear.
Surrounding the destroyed convoy was complete carnage. More than a few bandits lay, injured or dead. The survivors, what looked to be around more than twenty in strength, were bickering amongst themselves loudly while a handful of others tended to the wounded.
The dolls took a knee in a defilade some distance away, with PPK tuning her audio-sensors to understand what they were saying. All the while, StG-44 fixed a rifle-grenade device on the muzzle of her weapon. PPsH-41 prepped a hand-grenade, hand hovering over the pin.
"What are they saying?" Hsu questioned over comms, not being able to decipher the native language.
"Zhey were… attacked by a doll?" PPK said, surprised. All of them were, but didn't say a word to not interrupt the girl's translation. "They were returning to one of their camps. Something about… another doll."
"But we're the only dolls out here." M1987 chirped. "A-And none of us could do this much damage alone, right?"
"Thompson could, if she wanted to." G36 lamented. Much as she despised the woman, her fellow Captain was one of the deadliest combatants she'd ever seen.
"Thompson and her team are still here." Hsu pointed out, voice ringing through their earpieces. "All of our dolls are accounted for, so this had to be Sangvis."
G36 snorted. "Not possible. Ze only Sangvis doll that could do this is… a… ringleader…"
Both PPsH-41 and StG44 shared a look, recalling their last interaction with a Sangvis higher-up. That doll had torn through ten Griffin members in as many minutes, she could easily handle a convoy of criminals carrying contraband.
"Well, zhis supposed Ringleader ran off towards one of their outposts. Their captive is over there." PPK continued to inform, focusing her directional microphone even further as the bandit's debate grew harsher in intensity. "...She beat it out of them, it sounds like. What a shame, I missed a good show~."
"Are they saying anything else about the other doll?" Hsu pressed, not caring to hear about the sadist's disappointment.
"Nein, now they're fighting over if they should go help defend their base or run for the hills." PPK informed, before chiming in again. "We should kill zhem while zhey are distracted."
"Not happening. Recon mission, not search and destroy." Hsu reaffirmed, making the handgun doll pout in disappointment.
"What is our next move zhen, Kommandant? Return to our previous objectives?" G36 questioned.
"I think we should check out this outpost!" M1897 said, her small friend bouncing up and down on her close cropped hair. "Casper thinks if there's someone important, then we should get their first!"
"Casper?" The Commander asked, bewildered.
"It's her pet." Garand intervened, speaking for the first time. "Y'know, that blobby thing that rides on her head."
"Good to know we're working on a blob's intuition." Hsu commented, making Casper stop bouncing and deflate into a depressed pancake. "Thirty Six, I'll let you choose. Going near a Ringleader's going to be dangerous."
"M-me?" The echelon leader asked, not expecting to be given such a degree of agency. From her training, a Commander was supposed to tell them what to do almost to the letter.
"Field leaders need to be flexible. That means thinking for themselves." The Commander highlighted, a flutter of papers going over the comm-link. "Think. Use the information on hand, what's the call?"
G36's brow furrowed, trying to figure out what the best course of action was. It would be far safer to merely continue with their assigned task. Setting up pylons and avoiding a bunch of irregulars was child's play compared to drawing a ringleader's wrath. They were contracted to observe and report on the bandit problem, not the greater Sangvis threat.
...But, that threat was becoming more and more of an issue. As the days passed, Sector Nine seemed to become more and more crowded. And none of these new arrivals were friends.
The maid looked at the older rifle toter, waiting for any words of wisdom. StG44 merely pointed in the direction the road ran off, along which the Outpost surely was.
"...This is too strange to not investigate." G36 settled on, gesturing to the far side of their hiding spot. "We're moving on the outpost. Kommandant, can you guide us?"
"Already have Garand marking a waypoint." He replied, the yellow marker showing up on each doll's HUD. "Maps show an old Soviet fuel depot nearby, it's the only reasonable spot. Move fast, we're already behind."
Each of the dolls kicked off, entering a quick sprint and darting back into the tall foliage. G36 brought up the rear, patting her kit down carefully. Ensuring she had ammo, flairs, a mobile repair kit. Anything and everything she'd need in the worst-case scenario.
"You made the right call." She heard StG assure, the doll having set up a private Zener link between them both.
They'd soon find out if that was the truth.
A/N: And now we start moving towards the main plot of the game. Things are being a bit shuffled around, condensed and elongated in some areas. But it's all in service to the greater narrative. The cast will be expanding again in time, but for now, the spotlight's centered right on G36's clean-up crew.
Thanks to all who've favorited, followed and/or reviewed. If you like this, then go check out Faded Glory. Yes, Soul and I are shilling for each other. His fic's still good, read it.
o/
